Horse Crazy - Hardcover

Indiana, Gary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802111106 ISBN 13: 9780802111104

Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, 1989

Synopsis

Book by Indiana, Gary

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

A male writer meets, and falls self-destructively in love with, a handsome waiter in this superbly wrought novel by art critic Indiana ( Scar Tissue ). The waiter, Gregory, is a talented photographer who's recovering from some of his many addictions--heroin among them. At the same time, the writer is trying to get a grip on his life and work in an era of "gay cancer." While the theme is familiar, the offhand detail and the frequently brilliant turns of phrase that inform this portrait of an exotic relationship contribute to a compelling narrative. Ordinary life in lower Manhattan is depicted with spare but razor-sharp clarity. Equally spare, however, is the nod toward the terror of AIDS; but the verisimilitude of that knowing nod yields compassion where a trenchant or self-pitying approach would have elicited distance (at the very least) in the non-gay reader. But most important is Indiana's portrayal of a human relationship--a portrait whose sincerity and depth makes it a well-polished gem.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Set in the gay artistic subculture of New York's East Village, art critic Indiana's first novel is a story of romantic obsession in the age of AIDS. The unnamed narrator, a 35-year-old writer for a cultural newsweekly, is suddenly infatuated with Gregory, a handsome and emotionally disturbed photographer he meets in a bookstore. Despite misgivings about the nature of his attraction and fear of AIDS, he risks involvement. The result is an increasingly destructive emotional entanglement, a relationship in which the narrator becomes a victim of both the romantic fantasies he projects on Gregory and the younger man's manipulative behavior. While interesting as a study of obsession, the novel falls short when Indiana makes the dramatic situation double as social commentary.
- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0802111106
• ISBN 13: 9780802111104
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218